What a stupid comment. When did Apple ever state that that the iPhone 4 was not capable of recording a small bit of audio to send to a sever and then decode the info after it's been processed? Oh, that's not what you said, is it? Well that's exactly what you're implying Apple is doing when you fail to acknowledge the shear number of iPhone 4's in circulation and the serverside processing being done to support Siri.

This bot has been removed from circulation due to a malfunctioning morality chip.

What a stupid comment. When did Apple ever state that that the iPhone 4 was not capable of recording a small bit of audio to send to a sever and then decode the info after it's been processed? Oh, that's not what you said, is it? Well that's exactly what you're implying Apple is doing when you fail to acknowledge the shear number of iPhone 4's in circulation and the serverside processing being done to support Siri.

To be fair Soli there's been no statements from Apple to indicate their servers can't handle the additional traffic. All their cloud services have occasional outages for short periods of time. I wouldn't necessarily take fairly rare Siri connection problems as proof their servers are inadequate. There's certainly the possibility that the feature restriction to the latest devices is as much a marketing decision as an hardware limits.

To be fair Soli there's been no statements from Apple to indicate their servers can't handle the additional traffic. All their cloud services have occasional outages for short periods of time. I wouldn't necessarily take that as proof their servers are inadequate. There's certainly the possibility that the feature restriction to the latest devices is as much a marketing decision as an hardware limits.

Why does one need an official PR statement from Apple to confirm that processing and bandwidth for a given moment in time are finite resources? The system was new, untested on a large scale, and still suffered issues with* the very few (only a couple million, at most) iPhone 4S users trying to access the system.

You know very well that adding support for every iOS and Mac in the world at once simply because the local HW can handle it would have just complicated every issue they were and are facing.

Furthermore, and as a prime example of what can happen when you don't escalate usage carefully, as I've stated in the past Apple should have taken a lessen from Google's rollout of Gmail when they decided to unleash MobileMe. They not only gave it to all current iMac users at once but made the matter worse by rolling it out with the new iPhone and iOS version -and- pushed it in Apple Stores -and- offered a 30 day trial that required no CC to start the trial. All these things led to MobileMe looking a lot worse than it should have which eventually led to having to ditch the tarnished name.

Finally, being a marketing decision has no barring that it's not a technical decision first. The issue with MobileMe was a bad marketing decision where Apple tried to act like a small company when their popularity toppled the limitations of their system. If you made a bad first impression you are poorly marketing your product. Simply put, that means you have to consider the physical limitations of your product when you're marketing.

* with, not from. I am stating their Siri issues were from the millions of new iPhone 4Ses testing Siri that first weekend, but noting that Siri issues were widespread with just a fraction of the capable devices they only 8 months later.

This bot has been removed from circulation due to a malfunctioning morality chip.

Why does one need an official PR statement from Apple to confirm that processing and bandwidth for a given moment in time are finite resources? The system was new, untested on a large scale, and still suffered issues with* the very few (only a couple million, at most) iPhone 4S users trying to access the system.
You know very well that adding support for every iOS and Mac in the world at once simply because the local HW can handle it would have just complicated every issue they were and are facing.
Furthermore, and as a prime example of what can happen when you don't escalate usage carefully, as I've stated in the past Apple should have taken a lessen from Google's rollout of Gmail when they decided to unleash MobileMe. They not only gave it to all current iMac users at once but made the matter worse by rolling it out with the new iPhone and iOS version -and- pushed it in Apple Stores -and- offered a 30 day trial that required no CC to start the trial. All these things led to MobileMe looking a lot worse than it should have which eventually led to having to ditch the tarnished name.
Finally, being a marketing decision has no barring that it's not a technical decision first. The issue with MobileMe was a bad marketing decision where Apple tried to act like a small company when their popularity toppled the limitations of their system. If you made a bad first impression you are poorly marketing your product. Simply put, that means you have to consider the physical limitations of your product when you're marketing.
* with, not from. I am stating their Siri issues were from the millions of new iPhone 4Ses testing Siri that first weekend, but noting that Siri issues were widespread with just a fraction of the capable devices they only 8 months later.

All those things you said are true. Yes, there's finite resources, but do you know what their resources are? I don't either. Can you really eliminate Apple making a marketing decision to push new 4S's by restricting feature services, with Siri the only real reason for a lot of folks to buy one over an older 4?

I was actually hopeful Apple could bring easy of use UI to mapping applications and GIS. I mean ESRI and AutoCAD are some of the poorest interfaces in existence, making a hard subject needlessly more complex.

Oh well... Maybe in a few years Apple Maps will improve and force Google to make their own Maps better.

I just want to be able to quickly create data with Google Maps or Apple Maps or whatever, turn-by-turn spoken (and have the app understand what I say, intelligently, like Google Navigation has been doing for like 3 or 4 years lol), and also have 3D, imagery, etc, and GOOD accurate point of interest data, vector data (Streets, features, etc). All for free. So far the best app with all this for free is Google Maps/Navigation, but it still leaves a lot to be desired with UI and also data creation (which I know is not its main feature but if Google was smart they'd make it easier, so people can volunteer geographic data, and make Google even more accurate and thus valuable to advertise on). Also, Google has smart ideas like Night Mode. I do hope Apple improves the UI of mapping apps as a whole by raising the bar eventually...

"Overpopulation and climate change are serious shit." Gilsch"I was really curious how they had managed such fine granularity of alienation." addabox

Another thing someone needs to invent is "generate route avoiding The Ghetto" using crime statistics. Perhaps some buffering of Section 8 excluding routes through this area. This feature could potentially avert violence, though, in all seriousness.

"Overpopulation and climate change are serious shit." Gilsch"I was really curious how they had managed such fine granularity of alienation." addabox

Another thing someone needs to invent is "generate route avoiding The Ghetto" using crime statistics. Perhaps some buffering of Section 8 excluding routes through this area. This feature could potentially avert violence, though, in all seriousness.

Microsoft was issued a patent for just that feature a few months ago. "Avoid the ghetto" didn't get very good comments in the press.

Yep, you definitely read the descriptions on Apple's web site and didn't just look at pictures </sarcasm> The new Maps does all of these things. Crowd-sourced traffic (much like Waze, but built in, so it will be much more useful), gives you multiple routes to choose from, gives you turn by turn directions, reroutes if you miss a turn. Please actually use the service for an extended period of time before you blindly criticize something.

I've compared the two in-depth, and have used it myself - there is no doubt at all that Apple's maps are far inferior. Did you not see that comparison photo of Central London? The POI database is worse, roads are not coloured correctly to match the road-type, map coverage details in some places are incorrect - there's no way that Apple can get this to being even close to Google Maps by the time it launches in September. There are going to be a lot of unhappy people once they upgrade to iOS 6 to get an inferior Maps app.

I've compared the two in-depth, and have used it myself - there is no doubt at all that Apple's maps are far inferior. Did you not see that comparison photo of Central London? The POI database is worse, roads are not coloured correctly to match the road-type, map coverage details in some places are incorrect - there's no way that Apple can get this to being even close to Google Maps by the time it launches in September. There are going to be a lot of unhappy people once they upgrade to iOS 6 to get an inferior Maps app.

Actually, what there's going to be is an awful lot of 4S users pretty excited to get a turn-by-turn navigator built-in that works for them, most of which currently open the Maps application sporadically, if at all, because this is not included.

Then, of course, there'll be a few who'll need to change and start using the native google maps application, for whom the inconvenience will be minor, as it'll be just a different icon to click.

Finally, there are those with built-in mapkit instructions that will switch from one set of maps to the other transparently but don't rely on the "advanced differences" you're concerned with.

So the final, net, result of the change is that there's an additional mapping infrastructure, the old infrastructure will still be available in a different icon and there's a TON of added functionality completely under control of Apple.

I see only benefits, personally. The fact that the data can only get better (not meant as a joke, I seem to be the only one that remembers when google maps was a pile of crap) seems also good news to me, personally.

I mean, your whole argument circles around users having to click on a different icon if they want to run a Google application on an Apple device and that this supposed burden is enough to incite riots and PR disasters. I can see how you're not making any sense to most here.

I am on the side of the people who will be excited about finally getting turn by turn navigation native on IOS6... And integrated with SIRI? Awesome... what if the first version is not the best? It will only get better... for all of those who are just complaining even before it goes out... They should just go and buy another android device if they think its so much better... Its really amazing how people can sometimes under estimate such great new features and say how bad they and not appreciating the real advancement that this represents... And the funny thing is that after all that negative criticism, most of the same haters will end up buying a new iphone or turning to IOS6...

IOS 6 i think it will be great! Dont like it? Go and buy an android... There seem to be plenty to choose from out there...

Just to add a few "pennys" here. So some of you think that all new software and OS should work on ALL previous hardware? Really!?!? No one is forcing you to do anything. You dont have to update it to iOS 6. You can keep whatever current iOS you have with the current features you have and not buy a 4s or iPhone 5th gen.You currently have 3gs and iPhone 4 because of what is DOES do not what it might be able to do a few years from now. Come on. Anyone out there actually own a computer? Try and run all todays software on your old hardware and see how it works. Geez. If Apple provides free updates with some new features be happy. If you want the mother load of ALL features, then well upgrade your device. Your choice though not forced to. You lived with the 3gs and iPhone 4 for years now and loved it!

Not at all. The map app is entirely different, and actually lacking things at the moment I had yesterday. And yes, I have the beta. I'm not upset over a positional good. I'm upset I was told iOS 6 gives me a new state of the art map experience with navigation features, which apparently it does not. So really, maybe I don't have iOS 6 at all. I guess I have iOS 5.5.

Actually you have BETA software and as such its not fully baked. But you should already know that. Perhaps you should stick with release versions and only upgrade to the next releases once you read some reviews on certain features you are interested in keeping. Just a thought. Kills me that folks jump to the front of the line to get brand new BETA software then complain about what it lacks days after.

From the perspective of an iPhone 4 owner, I wonder why I would 'upgrade' to iOS 6. I'll lose the vastly superior Google Maps, I'll lose Street View, and I'll gain what...? Nothing. No gimmicky 3D maps, no turn by turn. Well I guess I'll get low res black and white satellite imagery instead of the nice Google satellite photography, so that might be nice for an old time feel.

I guess my phone will run even slower than before as well, as it did when I installed iOS5. It used to be a quick device, but no longer.

Yeah from that I heard Maps is the ONLY feature in iOS 6. I would not update either. Good point.

Just to add a few "pennys" here. So some of you think that all new software and OS should work on ALL previous hardware? Really!?!? No one is forcing you to do anything. You dont have to update it to iOS 6. You can keep whatever current iOS you have with the current features you have and not buy a 4s or iPhone 6th gen.You currently have 3gs and iPhone 4 because of what is DOES do not what it might be able to do a few years from now. Come on. Anyone out there actually own a computer? Try and run all todays software on your old hardware and see how it works. Geez. If Apple provides free updates with some new features be happy. If you want the mother load of ALL features, then well upgrade your device. Your choice though not forced to. You lived with the 3gs and iPhone 4 for years now and loved it!

So much delicious common sense in this post… there's only one correction to make.

So, the iPad 2 will have full map functionality whilst the iPhone 4 that runs the same CPU is out, with the iPhone 3GS you could understand as it's getting pretty long in the tooth but this obviously has nothing to do with hardware and everything to do with milking customers dry.

Put down the pitch fork guy... The iPad 2 has a dual core A5 and has a GPU 7-9x faster than the iPhone 4's A4 with single core GPU. There is just no comparison in performance graphically. There are games that can barely run on the iPhone 4 that with higher textures the iPad simply destroy's.

There is a real reason they don't share the same features. It's Like buying a blue Honda and not under standing why it's not as fast as a blue Audi.